Coming to a close
by bhut
Summary: It was morning in S.H.I.E.L.D. once, and Daisy was happy. But now it's evening, and night is coming in fast. What now?


**Coming to a close**

_Disclaimer: all of the characters belong to Marvel here._

Sometimes Skye, Daisy, Mary-Sue Poots, and even Quake go to the Lighthouse's floor with all the windows and observes the view of the lake outside. She remembers when it was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s morning and all was new, and everyone was so young and innocent. The FitzSimmons, looking like even younger and tinier versions of themselves; Fitz, of course, is still adorable, (not that she would say it aloud, Jemma can be rather possessive of him, when all is said and done), and Jemma is still lovely, but it isn't the same Fitz anymore, (apparently he managed to turn himself into twins, and one of the twins died while she'd been fighting Graviton), while Jemma has changed her hairstyle, and dyed her hair brown, and Daisy hates it. It makes Jemma look too much like _her_, the original Skye, the girl from the van, the one who is gone now, vanished as the Obelisk's cocoon fell down into rock dust, leaving Daisy Johnson behind – _agent_ Daisy Johnson, rather, who would soon become Quake instead, just as Lincoln vanished into space dust – and so did Ward…

Daisy looks away. Outside, the sun is setting – the peak of summer might be behind, but days are still long, nights are still short, and dawn and dusk are still drawn out as compared to winters. Daisy remembers when it was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s morning and all was new, and everyone was so young and innocent. DC was still AC, still himself, and not Sarge/quasi-Coulson/whoever the Hell this is now – full of life, and humor, and fatherly feelings and even hugs. He opened the door for her into S.H.I.E.L.D., into what it once was…and then he let it dissolve into something much, much worse. The Lighthouse isn't as bad as some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQs that they have lived in, but neither does it appear to be living up to its' nickname; it feels lonely, like a lonely tower that stands on a lonely island in the middle of a lonely sea…

Daisy looks away. The sun is setting slowly, but it will set, and it will set soon now, in less than 10 minutes. Night will fall upon the world, upon S.H.I.E.L.D., its' HQ and the other bases, (not that there's too many of them still – Mack might be the new director, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is still the same S.H.I.E.L.D. that it was when Mace died and Hydra used a Daisy LMD to frame S.H.I.E.L.D. and especially Daisy by having the LMD shooting Talbot – but now Talbot is gone too, first becoming the new Graviton, and then just…being defeated and all.

Daisy looks away. Sometimes, she is the hero, as she was back then. Other times – as she was with Sarge, and Izel, and the FitzSimmons' new alien friends, Enoch and co. – not so much. Not that that's odd, everyone has their on and off days, even the Cavalry, who sometimes is a woman that makes Daisy slash Quake look as sexy and professional as a bag of potatoes, and sometimes is a woman whose youngish, ethereal looks don't hide the fact that she was old – ish, and fragile, (oh, she's powerful and dexterous and skilled, but put her against someone like Brock Rumlow, and the great Cavalry is in trouble)…but Daisy remembers when the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. was young, and the Cavalry was this aloof, mysterious, powerful woman, who eventually took on Daisy as _her_ rookie…and before long the two women realized that even with their mutual… hatred of Ward they had little in common… and then came Li Shi and Daisy's true family… and everything that they had on the Bus and on the days after… fell apart into dust, just as May had, when Daisy sent her tumbling there with her powers. May didn't not forgive her, but neither she did – May just moved on as Skye slash Daisy slash Quake never could, though she tried, God but she tried!

…It had been day once, a great and glorious day in Li Shi, when Daisy met her true parents at last, and there was Lincoln, and the other InHumans and for once in her life Daisy felt like she could stop moving, like she could stop running, like she could stop being Skye-the-girl-in-the-van and be Daisy, a normal girl and daughter, (_beloved daughter_), with an ordinary people, an ordinary home, (and no effing Catholic nun in sight, _the bloody humanoid penguins_)-

But it is night now. Her parents are gone again, this time for good, Daisy is gone for good, becoming Quake, even as the last of her time in Li Shi, Lincoln, died, (and Ward died, and many other people died at the hands of Hive and Malick and Hydra), and Quake is one of the best S.H.I.E.L.D. agents; she had travelled the stars and saw aliens and-

-And it felt hollow, as if she was playing a part in some other story that was not hers, she was someone who was not her, she-

-she does not even know who she is anymore. Is she still Quake or is she becoming someone else? Maybe she should just leave, and become a regular person, not even a vigilante. She could have kept Robbie, she knows that she could, but – she did not want to. Not ever Ward, Lincoln, and everything else that happened before meeting the Ghost Rider. She had had enough!

"Yes, it certainly sounds so," says a certain someone, who most surely must be dead.

"I was, but then I came back. T1000, you know? We always come back whether you expect us or not."

"Yes, well, the rest of us are human and we worry-"

"You do? You did?" Grant Ward who is next to her now raises an eyebrow in such a manner that all possibilities of a hallucination – hey, for a while, the Lighthouse had an access to a fear dimension, or a Hell dimension, or something along those lines, so you never know – but this man is real.

"Yes," Daisy poked him in the abs. Yup, still real, and still really solid. "Stupid T1000. Was it worth it? Betraying us for Garrett, breaking us-"

"No, not it wasn't," Grant exhales, looking exhausted, as if he had just done a really hard thing-

Well. It is him. It is really him. Maybe he really had done.

"We weren't much better in the aftermath," Daisy mutters, ruthlessly squashing on the inside 'and it's also your fault', because it is not, not exactly, and she does not want to fight anymore. "How did you come back exactly?"

"We walked."

"We-?" Daisy raises an eyebrow: the sun may have set, it's night now, but she doesn't care. Somehow, somehow, suddenly her world is hers again, and everything is right and proper and how it should have been a long time ago, ever since Ward and AC pulled her out of her van.

"Yes," Grant pinches his nose. "It wasn't supposed to be like that, but somehow it turned into a mini-Harrowing instead."

"Of course it did," Daisy mutters, as she burrows into Grant's shoulder. Yes, solid and real, unlike most of her dreams, you betcha! "It's S.H.I.E.L.D. What else is new?"

There is a pause and Grant stares at her in a very specific way. "I want you so badly right now-"

"Fitz!" Jemma Simmons' shrill cry really ruins the mood here, only not.

"Then let's do it!" Daisy says brightly, as she sort of quakes her clothing to pieces. She will certainly need new clothing later, but firstly, she has it, and secondly, she does not care. "Grant Douglas, bring it on!"

And Grant Douglas certainly does – his removal of clothing is not as spectacular and quick as Daisy's own, but neither of them care. They just copulate right there and now, and to Hell, (or the fear dimension, or wherever) with everything else.

It is night outside now – proper night, not the leftover evening slash sunset. Daisy Johnson, a woman of many names, does not care. Somehow, anyhow, things have come full cycle, full circle, or something along those lines, and she is finally happy at last. Things are finally balanced-out in her universe and maybe she can begin to fix things with the rest of her family, if needs must.

End


End file.
